1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to raster image processing in printers, and more specifically to a method and apparatus for efficiently rendering and storing of pattern objects in a page.
2. Related Art
Printers are often used to print a specified content (received from an external system such as personal computers) on medium such as paper. The content to be printed (“page content”) is typically specified by page description languages (PDL) such as Postscript (PS) and Printer Control Language (PCL), as is well known in the relevant arts. Printing generally entails converting a page content specified by a PDL to a corresponding bit map. The bit map may then be used to print the content on the desired medium.
Bit maps are often generated by performing logical operations on data representing source, destination and paint. As is well known, a destination generally refers to a bit-map formed by rendering the display-list elements up to that point of time. A source refers to a current display list element being rendered, and paint refers to the shade of color or a pattern that the source may be filled with in the destination.
Patterns are often used in many instances while generating a page. For example, a pattern representing a map may be replicated onto several places of a printed page. In general, the manner in which a pattern is used while generating page content impacts the performance throughput and/or required resources (e.g., memory, processing power, etc). Accordingly, it may be necessary to process a pattern while meeting various requirements.